Prognostic factors determining long-term outcomes of conservative treatment for acute calcific periarthritis of the hand

Abstract

Acute calcific periarthritis (ACP) of the hand is an uncommon disease that is usually self-limited. Although the conservative treatment is generally considered the primary intervention, the prognostic factors associated with long-term outcomes have yet to be identified. The purposes of this study were to investigate the long-term effects of conservative treatment and identify factors associated with long-term prognosis. We retrospectively reviewed 25 patients with a mean age of 46 years who were diagnosed with ACP of the hand and followed up over more than 2 years. Pain control with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and activity restrictions were recommended for the initial treatment. Symptom persistence was defined as a visual analogue scale of more than 1. We compared patients with and without symptom persistence regarding potential prognostic factors such as age, gender, calcification size and type (type 1, amorphous and ill-defined; type 2, homogenous and well-defined), and joints and digits involved. Factors associated with symptom persistence were examined with multivariate analysis. At 2-year follow-up, 19 patients showed complete improvement, whereas 6 reported persistent symptoms. Symptom persistence was independently associated with the thumb involvement (odds ratio (OR), 149.77; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.61-15.98; P=0.02) and calcification type 2 (OR, 27.68; 95% CI, 0.50-11.08; P=0.02). In our study, most patients with ACP of the hand reported symptom improvement with conservative treatment at 2 years of follow-up. Calcification of the thumb or calcification type (homogeneous with a well-defined margin) was independently associated with symptom persistence at 2 years.